PNW Native Plant Sources

The following list of nurseries and seed sources are said to supply at least some Pacific Northwest native plants. I haven't contacted most of them myself, so I don't promise that all of these addresses are correct, or even that they are all still in business. If a catalog price isn't listed, it doesn't necessarily mean that the catalog is free, just that I haven't seen a price listed in my sources. Not all of them have plant lists available, or sell mail order, and many are open only by appointment or for only a few weekends every year, so call before showing up in person.

Keep two things in mind when sending SASE: the country you live in, and the country the nursery is in... US stamps don't work very well in Canada and vice versa, so send enough International Postal Reply coupons. Also, when putting in an order across the border, make sure that the nursery is willing to deal with the import/export paperwork. One fine day I'll put the plant import rules and regs here, but for now, you're on your own.

Important Note: In the past, I've added any nursery that told me it's selling at least some pnw native plants. A few years ago, that was about all I could hope for. Now, however, there are quite a few nurseries which sell a wide variety of native plants, and are also responsible enough to not sell invasive exotics such as english ivy. I'm currently working out a rating system to make it clear which nurseries specialize in natives vs. which carry a few of unknown origin, and which are willing to sell invasive weeds. Until then, I'm not currently adding new nurseries to the list, or removing any. For now, this is a 'buyer beware' list, and an entry on this list is not an endorsement by me--it's up to you to check.

There are a few things it's well worth checking up on before buying plants:

Where does the stock originate-locally, or somewhere far away? Many species occur across the country or around the world, but plants with a local origin will provide the best habitat and be the healthiest in our climate. As a rule of thumb, try to find plants with an origin of 35 miles or less from your yard, and at the same elevation.

Are the plants genetically diverse seedlings or named cultivars? Named cultivars are usually less desirable for building a habitat, because they've often been chosen for some abnormal characteristic such as early bloom or dwarf size.

Does the nursery sell plants collected from public lands? Try to avoid this unless they only take part in plant rescue from construction sites.

Does the nursery also sell plants such as english holly, english ivy, scots broom, and other invasive exotics? If so, you might prefer to take your business to someone who knows and cares more about their regional ecology!

Please mail me any additions or corrections. As I said above, I'm not currently making changes to the list, but I'll save your notes for the new edition, which should be out some time in summer 2000.

"I am situated in southern British Columbia. We specialize in native plant seeds of this dry grassland ecosystem (northern tip of your Great Basin) for restoration and landscaping purposes. We also do contract growing of native plant seedlings (no retail)."--Bobbie Hammersley

"Ecologically Sound Pacific NW Native Botanicals--Welcome to the wonderful world of ferns, mosses, and other Pacific Northwest native and naturalized species. We are a wholesale/retail and mail order nursery. We use specialized forest products contracted through the Department of Natural Resources. All of our plants and products made from them have been rescued from timber sale lands and logging operations with proper permits and licenses. We use self-limiting harvesting guidelines to assure ecologically sound practices. --Wanda Cucinotta

Offerings: mushroom spawn, pre-innoculated kits, growing supplies, books and videos. Comments: Oldest mail-order supplier of mushroom growing supplies for home and professional growers, more than 300 items in our catalog, including northwest native cultivars of fungi like Maitake (grifola frondosa), Lions Mane (hericium erinaceus), and Morels (morchella). See our page for more, including a 30-image "movie" of how to propagate morels indoors for transplanting into the wild.--Mushroompeople

The 1995-1996 seed list of the North American Rock Garden Society is now available. It contains 6800 varieties of alpines, hardy perennials, shrubs, and trees, a few unusual annuals, no vegetables or tropicals. Much of the seed is wild-collected by members of the Society. You can order seed; membership is required. If you do not have a web browser, the anonymous log-in FTP host is: cissus.mobot.org and the directory is: /pub/NARGS The directory is case-sensitive. This site is provided through the generosity of the Missouri Botanical Garden, which has a number of databases of interest to the gardener. Their address is: http://www.mobot.org/ --Tom Stuart

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